The wisdom of Pamela Wall
You may never meet someone as generous as Pamela Wall OAM, but it’s not just her charity she gives so freely – it’s also her wisdom and humour.
Pamela Wall is a name many South Australians will recognise. It’s a name that holds esteem and influence. You’ll find it next to her late husband’s name on the Ian and Pamela Wall Gallery at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
Then there’s the Wall Gallery at Carrick Hill and the Pamela and Ian Wall Performing Arts Initiative through the Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation. You’ll find the Ian and Pamela Wall Academic Centre at St Mark’s College.
And now, in a couple of years, St Peter’s Woodlands school in Glenelg will be home to the Dr Pamela Wall Centre for sport and performing arts after a recent $1 million donation.
But if you have the good fortune of meeting the 90-year-old in person, the first thing she’ll say is, “Call me Pammie”.
She does just that when SALIFE stops by her Springfield home to chat about upcoming celebrations for her milestone birthday.
Pammie is having a gown made by Paul Vasileff from Paulo Sebastian to wear when she marks the occasion with 200 of her closest friends.
The milestone has put Pammie in a reflective mood. The busy philanthropist, mother, former nurse and Order of Australia recipient has slowed down enough today to talk to SALIFE about some of her favourite memories and moments that have shaped her life.
Pammie remembers her parents as a stunning pair. Her father was a bank manager who took up a different post around the state every few years; some of his stops included Yorketown, Edithburgh, Hawker and Woodside.
Pammie, meanwhile, began boarding school at Woodlands at Glenelg (now St Peter’s Woodlands Grammar) when she was 10 years old.
“Being an only child, that time to me was all about having friends,” Pammie says. “They made sure we were all happy and I loved swimming and French. Miss Millington was the headmistress and every night, she’d stand at her door with a sherry in one hand and shake all the boarders’ hands with the other.”
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Pammie spent six years at Woodlands and when she left, it was off to a bank, where she worked on the ledger machine.
While there, she waited for the call to come in, inviting her to begin nursing, and in the early 1950s, she trained and worked as a nurse at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Just down the road in leafy North Adelaide, Ian Wall was an engineering student at St Mark’s College.
Before Pammie began nursing, she’d become close with a male friend, who later left for Britain, when he did asking his friend Ian to look after his girlfriend – which Ian was clearly happy to do.
The pair married in 1954 when Pammie was not quite 21 and baby Annabel came along within a year. Two years later, Pammie gave birth to Lucinda, who later passed away as an adult.
Those early years of marriage were busy and wonderful. From the outset, Pammie knew Ian was destined for great things – even if he tried to test that judgement at times.
“I was probably in my second year of nursing training and he came to pick me up in an MG and when I got in, there was no floor,” she recalls. “He told me he was rebuilding it and it wasn’t quite finished. I thought, ‘That’s an understatement!’.
“He took me down Rundle Street and I had to put my legs on the dashboard.”
For a long time, life revolved around the engineering company Ian started with two friends. Codan has since become a global electronics business that develops mining and defence technology used by governments, businesses and humanitarian aid agencies.
“It was hard in the beginning – all our money, which wasn’t a lot, went into the company,” Pammie says.
As the company grew, Pammie joined the board – the only woman among the men – and sat on it for 20 years.
“It meant that Ian and I could discuss lots of things that otherwise I wouldn’t have been informed about,” she says. “He was always working so hard and tired that he wouldn’t want to come home and explain everything that happened that day.”
Since Ian’s passing, Pammie has created a table of photographs for visitors to look at, marking the milestones of his life.
Today, chatting in her front sitting room – the place where she’s taken a visitor almost every day since Ian passed away nearly two years ago – Pammie’s lolly pink pant suit with floral adornment on one shoulder pops against the green velvet armchair. But during her board days, this kind of outfit was cutting edge to the woman, who had trained to be a model and walked in parades.
“I was going to these board meetings and I told Ian I didn’t particularly like women in pants and neither did he, but suddenly, (pant suits) were right up there and never stopped being fashionable,” she says. “I had enough money to buy a few sets and I’d mix and match them for the meetings.”
Pammie relished the chance to learn the ins and outs of the business and spent a lot of time over the years helping to grow the business on trips with Ian to Geneva.
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Among the busyness, the pair found ways to spend fun, inventive and hair-raising time together. “We loved to race cars, that was a big part of our life,” she says.
The couple had 20 cars they’d get out on the track, although Pammie’s favourite was a Rolls Royce.
“I loved the excitement and doing my absolute best as a female racing against the men.”
Pammie remembers one day when they were learning some new skills from an instructor at a track day.
“I was driving along and asked my instructor where Ian was and he said, ‘He’s just gone into a wall – but keep your mind on the job’. I drove past to make sure he was okay and then straight home – I had a dinner party for 10 that night.”
This wicked sense of humour hasn’t left Pammie and she has a wonderful way of connecting with all people – and then having them in stitches with her quick quips. As she walks around the room giving a little history of its contents – a lounge setting her mother was courted on and fine China found all over the world – she speaks of a place that holds a special place in her heart, and one you’ll find a stone’s throw from this very room.
If you take a stroll through Carrick Hill, you’ll find Pammie and Ian painted onto canvases hanging on several walls. Before they moved into their current house in 1996, the pair lived in Glen Osmond and their next-door neighbour was Carrick Hill owner Sir Edward Hayward’s secretary.
He owned and managed department store John Martin’s and on his way to work, he’d pick up his secretary.
“Through her, Ian and I formed a loving relationship with Sir Edward,” Pammie says. “I remember meeting him in London one day in one of the department stores and he was so excited to see me, he lifted me up and swirled me around in the men’s department. He was a delight.”
In the years following Sir Edward’s death in 1983, Pamela and Ian retained a relationship with Carrick Hill, having been there for so many special times. To those who knew Pammie and Ian or spent any time with them, it was clear they had a special relationship and a determined mission.
“I loved him because he was almost a genius. I didn’t ever think I would lose him, so the day that happened was very hard.”
Despite the heartbreak after Ian’s passing, their joint philanthropic mission is what has kept Pammie going through the tough months.
“That has kept me alive in the past two years – I’m doing the things Ian and I both planned.
“Not too long before he became really sick, he was still saying, ‘We must do this and we must not forget that’. What was not done with us together, I’m still trying to do now and I’ve accomplished much of that.
“It’s been hard, but I’m feeling more like Pammie now. I’ve felt as if I’ve had to move on in my own way. I had to wake up one day and say, ‘That’s it, keep going’.”
Pammie’s giving began with the hard work of committee after committee for everything from sick children to mental health and since then, with the boom of the business, the scale has skyrocketed and so much of her giving is around education and theatre.
Although, those early days haven’t been forgotten. Not too long ago, she was still spending weekends making biscuits and potting jam for fundraisers.
Pammie gets emotional when she talks about the importance of giving and how it’s enriched her life.
“Not all of us have opportunities in life – we should just remember how lucky we are in this world. I feel so lucky that I’ve had opportunities to share and help others.”
This article first appeared in the August 2024 issue of SALIFE magazine.
